Foxconn building factory and 000s jobs in Wisconsin. Also, unicorn captured in Hurtgen forest

Miaoli hills.

Think Foxconn is going to build a factory in Wisconsin? Luz Sosa, an econ instructor in Wisconsin, observes in a local newspaper column titled Take off the rose-colored glasses about Foxconn:

How about a cold shower and some due diligence? Here’s Foxconn’s record of failed promises:

• Foxconn promised a $30 million factory employing 500 workers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2013. The plant was never built, not a single job was created.

• That same year, the company signed a letter of intent to invest up to $1 billion in Indonesia. Nothing came of it.

• Foxconn announced it would invest $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs over five years in India as part of an ambitious expansion in 2014. The investment amounted to a small fraction of that, according to The Washington Post’s Todd Frankel.

• Foxconn committed to a $5 billion investment in Vietnam in 2007, and $10 billion in Brazil in 2011. The company made its first major foray in Vietnam only last year. In Brazil, Foxconn has an iPhone factory, but its investment has fallen far short of promises.

• Foxconn recently laid off 60,000 workers, more than 50 percent of its workforce at its IPhone 6 factory in Kushan, China, replacing them with robots that Foxconn produces.

Even if a factory goes up, it will just be automated, with few workers, churning out products and farming subsidies, Sosa says. Tim Culpan, probably Taiwan's sharpest econ reporter, observes in Bloomberg:

Just this past year, Foxconn is reported to have pledged investments of $5 billion in India; $3.65 billion in Kunshan, China; and $8.8 billion in Guangzhou. It's too early to know if those sums will ever be spent, but including Wisconsin, the tally now stands at $27.5 billion of commitments. That's more than Hon Hai has spent in the last 23 years.

He also notes that the subsidies come to $519 a head for Wisconsin residents, or enough to buy an iPhone for everyone in the state.

Perhaps this is related to trying to gain Trump's support for a 2020 presidential run as the KMT candidate.
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As wages rise in China, Taiwan firms to head elsewhere?

A flurry of stories about China and its Taiwan businesses this week. First, the Epoch Times detailed how the "Foxconn suicides" are neither, but look instead like a media construction to enable China to lever out firms that compete with its own national firms.

Foxconn responded to the negative publicity by raising wages, which inspired a number of articles. However, few of these articles noted that the raises were vapor. Why? Because, as Eastday chronicles, Foxconn wisely instituted a three month probation and review period for its Shenzhen workers. In other words, assuming anyone actually gets a raise, it will be months from now. "You didn't pass the review" is likely to be the new mantra over at Foxconn's HR unit for the next year or so.

In fact, while the local press has trumpeted Foxconn's announcement to move his factories back to Taiwan, this article at Taiwan Today claims Gou was working on that for the last months. All the Foxconn talk is just theatre. China attacks Foxconn with theatre, Foxconn replies with theatre. Not for nothing does "PRC" begin with "PR"....

That same article also says that wages for foreign workers in Taiwan are going to be lowered by adminstrative sleight of hand, which will help local firms return here and attract outside investment, which will mean greater demand for the taxis local workers are now all driving. Isn't that great?

Businessweek chronicled how rising wages, starting with the reforms of 2008 that note only pushed up wages but also ended certain export breaks, are putting pressure on Taiwan firms in China:

Recent wage hikes in China could force Taiwanese electronics firms operating there to relocate to other Asian countries, a Taiwanese industry leader has said.

Chairman Arthur Chiao of the Taiwan Electronics and Electrical Appliances Association said his group is assisting China-based Taiwanese companies to seek out new manufacturing sites in India, Indonesia and Vietnam in the wake of steadily rising labor costs on the mainland.

Another article noted that the Minister of Economics in Taiwan promised to put in place a set of policies to help Taiwan firms move south. The southward call was highly ironic, since diversification of investment to Vietnam and elsewhere was a staple of DPP policy (please, will somebody start looking at India?). Arthur Chao further said:

However, companies whose main markets are in the United States and Europe should consider relocating as soon as possible to places with better potential for development and profit making, Chiao said.

Meanwhile exports hit the largest percentage rise ever to reach the fifth highest monthly total ever. Looks like Taiwan's economy is on the rebound.

And back in China? The strikes at several foreign owned firms have apparently triggered other strikes, many at foreign owned factories, at least according to Epoch Times. Spreading strikes.... Looks like China has attempted to call up the demon of mass action and may now have great trouble getting it stuffed back into the bottle again.
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Daily Links

• Taiwan mountain biking video at Taiwan in Cycles.
• Police officer uses geomancy in police work.
• In response to the gangster killed in front of policeman in Taichung, Ma calls for stepped up police work and stuff. Because this approach worked so many times before. The government even plans to crack down on gangsters for a whole three months.
• MUST READ: John Pomfret's excellent piece in WaPo on the outburst of a PRC Admiral at the US for frustrating China's aggression and imperialism threatening its core interests. It really strikes to the heart of the kind of self-deception the panda huggers are engaging in.
  

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!